Photos by Ron Lewis, Mike Burghardt, Jeff Burghardt
SUNDAY NOTEBOOK – Competition Plus’ random water-cooler topics from the Lucas Oil Winternationals at Southern California’s In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip
1 – HAGAN HAS SWIRL OF EMOTIONS AFTER WINNING 1,000TH FUNNY CAR RACE – Matt Hagan, who’s normally chatty after a Funny Car victory, was out of breath and barely could talk after becoming the winner of the NHRA’s 1,000th Funny Car race Sunday night at the Lucas Oil Winternationals. But the first thing he said to mark the occasion was that the accomplishment is “unbelievable” and that “Christ is King, baby! All good things happen through God.”
Hagan had a mix of emotions after his history-making final-round run against Ron Capps. He said he had lost his aunt to cancer during the weekend, feeling her passing was weighing “heavy on my heart,” and he was bringing home the diamond Wally trophy home to Virginia in her honor. At the other end of the spectrum, he was euphoric at the realization he and boss Tony Stewart shared the podium, although Stewart won for another team besides his own. And the mountain of performance numbers was nothing short of mind-boggling.
Hagan used his 99th final-round appearance to record his first victory among the season’s three completed races, his 56th overall, his fifth at the Winternationals and eighth at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip. The victory improved his cumulative elimination-round record to 586-318 – just 14 round-wins away from reaching the 600 plateau.
He denied Capps his 59th victory and fifth at the Winternationals.
2 – STEWART THRILLED HE COULD TOP ASHLEY – Top Fuel winner Tony Stewart, overloaded with medals and lanyards bearing honors, said, “I feel like Snoop Dog.”
But he was Top Dog after gaining his career third NHRA pro victory and first Top Fuel trophy for his new Elite Motorsports organization in just his third race for team owner Richard Freeman.
Like Hagan, he was trying to catch his breath as he marveled at his feat of outrunning final-round opponent Justin Ashley. But he said, “I love Richard Freeman and everybody at Team Elite so much. What a cool feeling. You don’t get winded like this because you were driving the car. It’s the excessive celebration when you see that 99-cent damn light bulb on the wall come on.”
Stewart was especially impressed that he defeated Ashley, who had cut .025-second reaction times all day Sunday. He said he was “going up against the best guy in the class – and not by a little bit. He’s that badass by a lot.” He said he was happy that he could win with a .047 light, compared to Ashley’s .036, “just to run with him and get a chance [to win].”
It was Stewart’s seventh final-round appearance and his first victory at Pomona.
The match against Ashley carried some irony. Ashley eliminated Stewart’s wife, Leah Pruett, in the second round Sunday. And Stewart’s crew chief, Mike Green – who bragged about Stewart, saying, “That guy can drive about anything, can’t he?” – left Ashley’s program late last year to tune for Stewart.
3 – ANDERSON PICKS UP WIN NO. 113 – Greg Anderson keeps piling up the Pro Stock victories. He extended his NHRA-record for active drivers across all classes to 113, beating tough teammate and reigning class champion Dallas Glenn in the final round by six-thousandths of a second.
“He is is out of control. He’s a handful,” Anderson said of Glenn. The two KB Titan teammates were meeting in a final for the 10th time. Anderson is 9-1 against Glenn.
“I felt good all day. I knew I had the race car if I did my job. I did my job,” he said.
Anderson, the No. 1 qualifier this weekend and runner-up at Gainesville in the 2026 opener, ran his Pomona record victories to 17 and seven in the Winternationals. He also won here in 2006-08, 2012, 2016, and 2025.
4 – SEEN THIS ACT BEFORE – Doug Kalitta climbed from the cockpit of his Mac Tools dragster immediately after seeing Tony Schumacher lose the rear end of his American Communications Construction/Aloha Beauty Lounge entry – in almost a carbon-copy repeat of Saturday’s mess that took two hours to mop up. Kalitta was ready to go in the next pair, and Antron Brown’s Matco Tools team, set to close Round 1, was right behind Kalitta. Within five or six minutes, they all were back at their respective pits. Shawn Langdon’s engine let go with a fiery pop, as well, but any clean-up was minimal.
Kalitta returned to the track and reeled off a track-record speed of 339.74 mph. That eclipsed Brittany Force’s 338.94-mph mark from November 2022. (Clay Millican’s track elapsed-time record of 3.628 seconds from February 2018 remains intact.)
5 – PART-TIMER RUPERT KNOCKS OFF PROCK IN FIRST ROUND – Jason Rupert’s first-round victory over two-time and current champion Austin Prock was more than a boost for smaller-budgeted and part-time teams. It also underscored Prock’s frustratingly tough start to this season and to his tenure with Tasca Racing. As for Rupert, his pass wasn’t the prettiest – it appeared to be a bit wounded, then spun the tires – but it was enough to advance and deny Prock his first round-win of 2026. “I got out there. It was running pretty good and it started spinning the tires. And out of my peripheral vision, I looked over, didn’t see him and I thought I’d better get back on the gas and get to the finish line,” Rupert said. “So to beat a team like that is pretty special. Those guys are really, really good, and we’re a part-time team and we have a really good team also with Rahn Tobler leading us. And we have some support from Hot Probes and some other people out here and the Sand Drag Association. And I’m just happy to go to the next round.”
6 – TOP FUEL FINAL FOUR PUT ON A SHOW – The Top Fuel semifinals provided arguably the most thrilling and most intriguing entertainment of eliminations. The bottom line is that Justin Ashley defeated Doug Kalitta and Tony Stewart advanced to the final past Shawn Langdon.
But what made these two match-ups amazing were several stats. Kalitta and Ashley had identical elapsed times (3.705 seconds). But on that run, Kalitta reset the track speed record he had established in the first round with a 340.56 mph. It was the first Top Fuel class 340-mph clocking on this racetrack – and he lost by nine-thousandths of a second because Ashley cut his third straight .025 light. (Stewart, his final-round opponent, was massively impressed with Ashley’s reaction times. “I don’t even know if he’s mortal,” Stewart said.)
Kalitta said, “That was a close one. It was just a dead heat run against Justin. Apparently, the data for the computer may have been acting up a little bit with the clutch, so that was unfortunate. But for Alan [crew chief Johnson] to be able to make it run what it ran without having a lot of data, that’s pretty good. This Mac Tools team definitely has a good car, and we’re looking forward to dragging her out and going a little more on the schedule.”
Then, in the other semifinal, Stewart eliminated Langdon, respected as one of the two best leavers in the sport along with Ashley. And of the four semifinalists, Langdon had the slowest light, with a not-shabby .048 of second.
“We just lost a good race,” Langdon said. “The Kalitta Air Careers car was great, but we just ended up on the wrong end of a great drag race. We’ll leave Pomona No. 2 in points, so the Kalitta cars are one-two in points, and that was the end-of-the-weekend goal. It’s good racing.”
7 – BATEMAN EMOTIONAL AFTER TAD TRIUMPH – Top Alcohol Dragster winner Garrett Bateman finally won the Winternationals after more than 30 years of trying. But his mind first was on his fellow competitor, James Stevens. Bateman was in the opposite lane late Saturday night when Stevens rode out a particularly violent crash and suffered multiple serious injuries. He encouraged people to pray for Stevens and said, “James Stevens is going through my mind. I pray for him, that he recovers from those injuries. I pray for his family.” He also was overcome with emotion for his own achievement. “I’m trying to keep it together,” he said, clutching his trophy, “but this is a really, really big one.”
8 – DOUG GORDON BACK IN WINNING GROOVE – Three generations of the Gordon family, from Paso Robles, Calif., have raced together for years. Now bubbly young Maddi Gordon has taken the sport by storm since stepping out of the car in which her dad Doug won three Top Alcohol Funny Car titles and into the Carlyle Tools Dragster for Ron Capps Motorsports. But Sunday was Doug Gordon’s day. He slipped back into the family-owned race car and won the Top Alcohol Funny Car final round against Annie Whiteley on a holeshot. Gordon is 11-2 against Whiteley and 4-1 against her in final rounds.
9 – TODD LOSES BUT WINS, IN A SENSE – Funny Car driver J.R. Todd advanced to the semifinals and lost when he smoked the tires early against eventual winner Matt Hagan. But the DHL Toyota Supra driver had a productive and satisfying weekend nonetheless. He was No. 1 qualifier for the first time since 2021, and he established low elapsed time and top speed of the meet in the first round with a 3.889-second, 337.16-mph pass. Moreover, he earned a spot in the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge at the next race, at Concord, N.C., near Charlotte. During Saturday’s qualifying sessions, the drivers who reached the second round at Pomona will run the four-wide semifinals and final to earn additional money and Countdown to the Championship bonus points. He’ll enter zMAX Dragway in a couple of weeks in third place.
“We obviously wanted to win the 1,000th Funny Car race, but at the end of the day, it was a great weekend for us,” Todd said. “We’re definitely in the hunt. We just stumbled there in the semis, but when the track gets cool like that, it kind of narrows up your [tuning] window, and with this combination, we really don’t have a lot of notes yet. Either way, this DHL GR Supra team is trending in the right direction, so it’s a good momentum for the rest of the season.”
10 – HE SAID WHAT?! – We’re pretty sure this isn’t scientific, but Rick Ware Racing crew chief Jon Oberhofer said, “A win light, it damn near cures cancer.”
SATURDAY NOTEBOOK – PRUETT, TODD, ANDERSON WILL LEAD PRO FIELDS; KALITTA, GLENN GO BACK-TO-BACK IN MISSION BONUS RACE; SPORTSMAN WINNERS CROWNED
1 – PRUETT: ‘FANTASTIC IS UNDERSTATEMENT — Top Fuel No. 1 qualifier Leah Pruett will get a first-round bye in Sunday’s eliminations, based on her 3.724-second pass at 329.75 mph Friday. After she secured the 16th top starting spot of her career, Pruett pinpointed her feelings. “I think fantastic is an understatement. I think more than anything, we’re thrilled with where the performance of this Rinnai team’s performance is at. It’s building confidence and momentum. If you look at the ladder – only 15 cars – so you know we’re going to have a chance on E1 to really fine-tune that extra power,” Pruett said. “We were surprised that 3.72 stuck. The day just changed all throughout with the delays. I have my own work to do, but … we’re moving and grooving, and looking forward to eliminations.”
2 – TODD TO LEAD FUNNY CAR FIELD – With his 3.896-second elapsed time at 335.32 mph, DHL Supra Funny Car driver J.R. Todd earned his first Funny Car No. 1 qualifying spot since 2021. Todd, who won the Phoenix #2Fast2Tasty Challenge for the class, is seeking his first victory of the season. He is in a strong position to win the 1,000th Funny Car race in NHRA history.
“I saw the 1,000th Funny Car winner trophy on the wall up there in Q3. That’d be an awesome accomplishment. There’s been a lot of great Funny Car drivers, and it was pretty awesome to see Shawn [Langdon, his Top Fuel teammate] get the [1,000th Top Fuel win] last year in Charlotte. If we could pull that off and put that trophy next to his at the shop, I think that would make Connie [team owner Kalitta] really happy. I love coming here. There’s a lot of history at this place, and hopefully we can add some more history tomorrow.”
Jim Campbell made the final qualifying session a little spicy, riding Gary Densham’s Funny Car into the sand trap at the end of the 1,000-foot course. The car’s body cracked, but Densham and Campbell both vowed Campbell will be able to show up for Sunday’s first round out of the No. 9 slot.
3 – ANDERSON NO. 1 FOR 142nd TIME – Pro Stock No. 1 qualifier Greg Anderson claimed the No. 1 Pro Stock qualifying berth for the second time this season and the 142nd time overall. He’ll be aiming for not only his first victory of the season, but also his 17th career triumph at Pomona. He said he’s hoping to see – to be victorious in – an all-KB Racing final.
4 – BONUS BABIES – In Saturday’s Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge action, Phoenix winners Doug Kalitta (Top Fuel) and Dallas Glenn (Pro Stock) scored back-to-back triumphs. Matt Hagan won the Funny Car final for the extra cash and the Countdown to the Championship bonus points.
After edging Maddi Gordon in the Top Fuel final, Kalitta said of his Mac Tools team, “We’re just hungry to keep it going. We’ve had good luck with Mission Foods last year with Saturday racing. And we’re just trying to translate it into Sunday.”
Hagan defeated Paul Lee in the Funny Car final round and said, “I just hope I haven’t used up all my adrenaline for the weekend. But it’s cool what Mission does. Being able to win some money for the crew guys and put a little coin in their pockets means a lot. At the same time, we’re really focused on the points. We’ve got a great race car this year, and I’m excited to see what we can do with it. Mike Knudsen is really starting to come into his own, and with Phil Shuler and Alex Conaway, we’ve built a real brain trust. They’re constantly learning and growing, and it’s honestly impressive to just stand back and watch them work. They make smart decisions and put together solid runs, even when conditions are tricky for other cars. We’re very blessed to be here and very thankful for everything on the Mission side. Now we’ve got to shift our focus to tomorrow — race day. There’s a lot on the line. The weather is unpredictable, but I’ll tell everyone it’s sunny in California — just maybe keep a poncho in your back pocket.”
After a runaway Pro Stock victory over Aaron Stanfield, reigning NHRA champion Glenn said, “I feel really good. I’m really relaxed in the car. The car’s making great runs, which makes it kind of easier to drive. Everything’s just going right.”
Glenn’s KB Titan Racing teammate Greg Anderson edged him out for the No. 1 starting spot. Glenn said, “Greg’s got a fast hot rod, but we’re right there with him.”
5 – SPORTSMAN WINNERS – Because of an ominous weather forecast for Sunday, the NHRA opted to finish most of the sportsman-class eliminations Saturday. The Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car classes will complete their eliminations Sunday, as scheduled.
Race winners Saturday were: Grant Durie, Top Dragster; Jeff Gillette, Top Sportsman; Mike Wiblishouser, Super Gas; Kyle Rizzoli, Super Stock; Justin Morris, Super Comp; Justin Lamb, Stock; and Kenny Snow, Super Street.
Shawn Cowie was the No. 1 qualifier in Top Alcohol Dragster, and Shane Westerfield led the way in Top Alcohol Funny Car.
6 – BRUCE LARSON REFLECTS ON DISTINCTIVE CAREER – Bruce Larson has four cackle cars – ones he used to race – and he takes them to Cacklefests to gather with drag-racing fans who enjoy reminiscing and admiring the hot rods of yesteryear. The 1989 Funny Car champion and Winternationals winner guessed that the younger crowd probably doesn’t have a clue what that’s all about: “I doubt it, but they enjoy the noise and the smell of nitro.”
A grin spread across his 89-year-old face at the idea that they don’t know what fun and lore and history they’ve missed.
They haven’t known the satisfaction he knew as a teenager, buying a ’32 Ford coupe at age 14 from a farmer near his home at Camp Hill, Penn.
“It was complete with a V8 engine, original V8, and it ran. It didn’t have any rear fenders, but other than that, it was complete,” Larson said. “By the time I was 16, I had it turned into a street rod that I built looking like a lot of the California magazines showed me how to do it.”
Back in the day, the hotbed of drag racing was Southern California, but Larson said this weekend as he enjoyed revisiting the Winternationals, “Oh, we watched what was going on out here. We might have been a little bit behind the times, but then we got a little creative.” And then Larson said, “East Coast did pretty well, didn’t we?” His wink was a reminder that Tampa-area native “Big Daddy” Don Garlits, the five-time Winternationals winner for whom he drove a dragster and in whose International Drag Racing Hall of Fame he was inducted in 2006, set and the sport on its ear as an innovative interloper and made a lasting and still-relevant impression. (One of Larson’s USA-1 Camaro Funny Cars and Garlits’ Swamp Rat XXX are among the relics in the Smithsonian Institution collection.)
But Larson started racing with that ’32 Ford coupe in 1954, showing it off at the Drag Safari race at Linden, N.J. He built a career that brought him several distinctions. Larson was the last Funny Car champion before John Force went on his tear of 14 titles in the next 17 years. Did he see Force’s dominance coming?
“No, I didn’t,” Larson said, but he had another surprise. “I thought I was going to do very well in the future after that. And I had that sponsor that I’d had for two years and I lost it right after I won the championship, and I couldn’t find another sponsor. I got a little bit of money from that sponsor that pulled out, but not enough to run the next year successfully. I ran 1990 and tried hard. So I parked it and waited a couple years, and Don Garlits called me and wanted me to drive for him. And so that was a neat new experience. Did that for three years for Don.”
With that, he became the NHRA’s first so-called triple threat, the first to compete in Pro Stock, Funny Car, and Top Fuel. “I didn’t realize that was any distinction,” Larson said, “but announcer/statistician Bob Frey pulled this statistic together and told me about it – and told the world about it.”
The phenomenon of fans gathering directly behind a fuel car when it’s warming up doesn’t surprise Larson at all. He understands why they’re willing to subject themselves to crying and coughing, practically choking, on the stinky smaze that envelops them – then when the engine cuts off, they point to another pit that’s about to crank up the decibels and produce a cloud of smelly smoke … and they all go running toward more of the same
For Larson it’s simple: “From the beginning of time, we all wanted to smell the nitro. I think the smell of nitro keeps us young.”
7 – UH-OH … THERE GO TWO HOURS – The back end of Tony Schumacher’s American Communications Construction/Aloha Beauty Lounge dragster broke at about 500 feet during his third overall qualifying pass, with Ron August in the opposite lane, and gushed gear oil onto the racing surface. The clean-up took just a little more than two hours. Meanwhile, officials sent the remaining Top Fuel teams back to the pits for a chance to adjust their tune-ups.
8 – AREND IN, LESENKO OUT AT DUNN RACING – Funny Car team owner Jim Dunn said he’s “still having fun. As my old hero [Jungle Jim Lieberman] used to say, ‘Drag racing is outta sight.’” Then he shared a reason his driver, Todd Lesenko, is out of the seat and veteran Jeff Arend is behind the wheel. Dunn said of Lesenko, “He’s hurt. He’s going to be back in a couple of weeks. We’ll see how it goes.” Arend said he was at home nearby Friday, not at the track, because he’s a poor spectator. He said he received a call at 9:30 Saturday morning from Jon Dunn (crew chief and son of Jim Dunn), asking him if he wanted to drive a car. He said he told Dunn his driving suit and equipment were in northern California. But Arend seemed to be ready to fill in. Lesenko lost traction early in his late Friday and crossed the center line before the 330-foot mark.
Cody Coughlin wasn’t able to join his KB Titan Racing team again Saturday, so crew chief and occasional driver Dave Connolly continued to fill in for a second day.
9 – PEACE IN MIDDLE EAST – Top Fuel racer Shawn Langdon spent a couple of months during the winter racing (and winning) in Qatar in the Arabian Drag Racing League. He returned to the United States to test (and record the quickest speed in drag-racing history, at 345.62 mph) and race at the Gatornationals.
Shortly after he left Qatar, war broke out in nearby Iran. And the logical reaction would be, “Thankfully, I got out of there just in time.” But that wasn’t Langdon’s reaction at all.
“I feel safer over there right now than I would in half of our downtowns in America. It’s 100-percent true. I’d go back tomorrow if I could. I love it, everything about it. It’s not what you hear in the media. There’s always extremists everywhere you go, and it doesn’t matter if you go to the Middle East or you go down to Compton, down in L.A. You’re going to have gangs, you’re going to have violence, you’re going to have extremists. It’s always going to be that way,” Langdon said.
“But some of the most generous, kind-hearted people that I’ve ever met come from Qatar, UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia – just their culture, their lifestyle. It’s such, for the most part, a pretty relaxed environment. And it’s a different style of living over there, but the morals and the values I really admire of how their culture is. You go to Qatar and there’s no homelessness over there. There’s no theft. Crime rate is one of the lowest in the world. You can go down there and you can walk downtown at 2 o’clock in the morning and not have to look over your shoulder. There’s kids out there playing on playgrounds in the middle of the night. There’s kids riding bikes on the streets in the middle of the night. And you don’t have to worry about any of that. You could go into a restaurant, leave your backpack in the front seat and they’re not worried about it being gone when you come back. People don’t steal over there. You don’t have to go into a grocery store and things are all locked up. There’s no muggings there. There’s nothing like that,” he said. “I love the experience over there.
“Honestly, I felt so at peace over there for the couple months that I was there because it’s just such a relaxed environment. Everything over there is ‘Don’t worry.’ We’re always over here in such a rush and it’s like you’re always five minutes behind. So I get over there and I’m like, “Oh, we got to blah, blah, blah … and they’re, ‘Don’t worry.’ I was never stressed out. I was never … nothing … over there. It was always like I just took it day by day and I don’t think I got my blood pressure above a certain level for the two months I was there because it was just such a relaxed environment.”
Langdon said, “There’s a lot of old-school culture still, but there’s a lot of new culture with how times are today, equal rights, and there’s a lot of that stuff. So, yeah, culturally there are still some women that cover up, but typically it’s for their husband, for their man. But for the most part, once you get over there, you don’t even realize you’re away from your own country. The street signs are in English and Arabic. You go to the restaurants, the menus are in English and Arabic. After being there for a certain amount of time, you don’t even think that you’re in a different country.
The structure of motorsports also is unique, Langdon said: “They have car clubs from the different countries that come in, but everybody’s so proud of their country. So they win the race and they put on their country flag and they wear their country flag. And the government helps these car clubs go to these races. They help fund these car clubs to supplement income to the racers so they could go race and be representatives of their country.”
10 – INTO HIS SEVENTH DECADE – When Ron Lewis, a frequent contributor to Competition Plus, attended his first Winternationals, in 1966, the race track known today as In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip had hay bales for guard walls. And Top Fuel dragster drivers – no Funny Cars on the scene yet – could make as many qualifying runs right before final eliminations. So Lewis, his parents, his brother, and sister arrived about 4 a.m., and by then the grandstands were full to about the eighth-mile mark.
He said he experienced the highest high and lowest low in the same weekend – in 1971, his first year to be granted photo credentials. “Big Daddy” Don Garlits took the Top Fuel victory in his revolutionary Swamp Rat XIV rear-engine dragster, but “Sneaky Pete” Robinson had been killed the day before in a qualifying accident.
Two years later, as a student at Cal-Irvine, Lewis hitchhiked to Pomona and stayed in the parking lot, sleeping on the frozen ground, his trusty camera bag at his side. His perseverance paid off: At age 18, he landed a center spread of photos in prestigious Hot Rod magazine. That 1973 race took three weeks to complete because of rain.
But his favorite Winternationals memory, he said, was from 1998, when both of Don “The Snake” Prudhomme’s drivers, Ron Capps and Larry Dixon swept the nitro classes. “That was a lot of fun. It really came together for them,” he said.
Lewis began attending drag races in an era when the communications industry was much less instantaneous, long before the Internet existed. Drag-racing fans eagerly awaited news of who won the events, watching their mailboxes for the latest National Speed Sport News or National Dragster or any publication that covered the races. And because the Winternationals traditionally was the first race of the season, fans had spent all winter long wondering what kind of cars the teams would bring to Pomona.
“The Winternationals used to be so much more than it is now, in the sense that it was all the new cars. It was so exciting because you had all the newest stuff. You hadn’t seen them before. They came from all over the country. It’s not like with the Internet now,” he said. “And you came here and you saw 40 or 50 brand-new cars. The rules were a lot lighter, so you had a lot of new technology stuff. The middle ’60s were like the Wild West for the cars and what they could do here.
“And you got to see it on TV – Wide World of Sports – like, two months or something afterwards,” Lewis said.
He recalled the truly wild spectacles, saying that “1969 was pretty wild when Larry Reyes flipped The Hawaiian Funny Car; blew over in the lights. That was the first thing like that I’d ever seen.”
The Hawaiian flipped and flew off the track after a first-round victory. It certainly underscored the danger, power, and frankly, the thrill appeal of the sport. But Lewis remembered seeing more of the same mishaps. “There were several blowovers in the history of the
Winternationals. Eddie Hills was the most memorable. I think he was the first one. Then Russ Collins and Jimmy Nix. I mean, nobody had ever seen anything like that.”
Lewis has seen – and photographed – plenty of the dominating, the crazy, the unpredictable, the spectacular, and the splendid at the Winternationals. And he plans to keep coming back for more.
FRIDAY NOTEBOOK – PRUETT, VANDERGRIFF, ANDERSON TENTATIVE NO. 1 QUALIFIERS; REACTION TO 2027 PRO STOCK RULES IS MIXED; FUNNY CAR RACERS EYE 1,000TH TROPHY
1 – NEW BEGINNINGS FOR LEAH PRUETT – Top Fuel’s Leah Pruett is starting to write a new chapter for herself at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip.
The previous time she raced at this track where she cut her teeth in the sport was at the 2023 NHRA Finals, where she faced off against Doug Kalitta in a winner-takes-the-championship final round. Kalitta won, she finished third in the standings, and she had a couple of years to think about it. So the Redlands, Calif., native was more than ready to reel off the 3.724-second, 329.75-mph blast on the 1,000-foot course Friday that gave her the provisional No. 1 qualifying position for the Lucas Oil Winternationals.
“I’ve thought a lot about that day, that final round. Finishing a race weekend with a Wally is always the goal. Getting the win this weekend in Pomona would also simultaneously finish that last piece of unfinished business,” she said. “But that chapter has closed, and so much life has taken place since then. The Winternationals carries with it new beginnings, with new orders of business that are far greater than just one round at one racetrack against one team.”
Pruett is fourth in the standings entering this third of 20 events on the 2026 calendar. She qualified third at the season kickoff at Gainesville, Fla., and started second at Phoenix. But she’s home – and at home.
“Racing in Southern California and at the Pomona Dragstrip specifically is forever sentimental because it’s home for me,” Pruett said. “Those purple mountains visible from the staging lanes and behind the tower always bring a sense of majesty to the races. That, combined with not only the NHRA heritage but my own, puts it on another level.”
“I am in my element when I’m competing and the more I can be in that element, the better,” she said, looking forward, as well, to Saturday’s Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge. “No simulator in the world can give you the experience that something like the Tortilla Tussle does,” Pruett said. “I’ve always thought the #2Fast2Tasty Challenge was neat. It gives fans a chance to see competition on Saturday, and if you couldn’t put down great qualifying on Friday, it still gets you the chance to qualify at the back of your class in the session. There’s the added value of the bonus championship points and a bit of a cash bonus for the guys. So, it’s a win all the way around to be in it.”
But she did put down a great qualifying run Friday.
“Over the course of history, the Winternationals has been the kick-off race for the NHRA, where you first started to find your footing for the season. This year, being third on the schedule and already 14 laps in, I feel an elevated level of preparedness for the Winternationals that I’ve never felt before,” said Pruett, who won the 2017 and 2021 runnings of the event. “I am more comfortable in the car than even at the start of the season. Winning the Winternationals in the past meant you hit the ground running. Right now, we already have momentum. It can be done. We can win, and knowing we are capable is what excites me most.”
2 – JOHN FORCE RACING FANS ON THE ‘JV TEAM’ – Brea, Calif., native Jordan Vandergriff captured the tentative Funny Car No. 1 qualifying berth for the Lucas Oil Winternationals with his run of 3.951 seconds at 327 mph on the In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip. And he said moments later, “It’s definitely a new experience for me. I’ve never been in this position before, but I’m happy to be here. Coming into this race, I just had a feeling we were going to do well. I think the first two races were so hot, but we knew what we had, especially in testing before the season started. So, coming here, we knew that we were going to have a good race car. And that second run felt pretty perfect. And now we kept No. 1. I was a little nervous there. I came up, watched the last pair and got a little nervous for the first time and happy it stuck. Really proud of the team, Chris Cunningham, Jason Bunker. And we’ll roll that in tomorrow.”
3 – NO. 1 BUT CONCERNED ABOUT NEXT YEAR – Greg Anderson is atop the Pro Stock leaderboard overnight. But the first question he fielded after grabbing the provisional No. 1 spot, curiously, was about whether preparing for the NHRA’s newly announced rules changes for 2027 would hinder his 2026 performance. Anderson replied, “Well, definitely the sooner you can bite the bullet and start working on it, the better off you’re going to be. And we haven’t started yet, so we’re already behind. I know some of the other guys have [looked ahead to next year], so it’s time to get to it. The good news is we’ve got a great product right now we can continue racing with. So we probably got a little more leeway and we can spend a little more time with a new project. So it’s going to be interesting, going to be cool. I always love change. And anytime change has happened before, it’s kind of worked out good for KB Titan. So we’ll see if we can do it again. It’s going to be a challenge, but I look forward to it. So going to be fun.”
4 – 1,000TH FUNNY CAR EVENT – Ford racer Dan Wilkerson has a special reason he wants to win this weekend’s 1,000th Funny Car race, beyond simply claiming the distinction. His father and tuner, Tim Wilkerson, “won races 400 and 500, so we are really hoping to put our SCAG Power Equipment Mustang in the winners circle so Wilkerson is the only name on the list three times,” he said.
John Force Racing’s Jordan Vandergriff, competing at the Winternationals for the first time, also has visions of personal satisfaction. The Brea, Calif., native said, “Getting my first win in the NHRA’s 1,000th Funny Car race, at my hometown track, would be amazing. I think you couldn’t write a script any better than that, and Hollywood’s not too far away. It just would be unbelievable for it to happen, and we’re [operating] with the idea that it’s going to happen.”
Vandergriff’s JFR teammate Jack Beckman – also competing at his home track – has a unique perspective on this milestone. “Not only am I a drag-racing historian, I am also part of the history,” the Corona, Calif., resident said. “NHRA is hosting a panel discussion at the museum on race weekend with the milestone winners, and numbers 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900, are all alive – and as far as I know will all be there. I’m number 600. I had forgotten the fact that I’m part of the fabric of the milestone race wins that got us to 1,000.
“There’s never any extra incentive to win a race, because you just want to win a race, and they’re the same size trophies at every race … except for this year being NHRA’s 75th anniversary. NHRA stepped up the appearance of the winners’ trophies this year, and tracks have lately been giving an additional trophy, kind of the flavor of the event there, and so I’m sure this one for the 1,000th is going to be incredible,” Beckman said. “I just didn’t think I’d be a part of this. I mean, I’ve done 30 races for John Force Racing, so 31 races ago, I wasn’t racing. The fact that I’m back in the cockpit to have a chance to win the 1,000th Funny Car race is the greatest news.”
Beckman has won in his past four starts at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip (2019 Finals, 2020 Winternationals, 2024 Finals, 2025 Winternationals) and is 19-1 in his five most recent appearances at the track. He also won twice at the Winternationals in the Super Comp class (1998, 2003).
“Pomona happens to be my home track, just happens to be the 1,000th Funny Car race, and I happen to be the defending race champion,” Beckman said. “I’m hoping that the planets are going to line up. It’s kind of a nice feeling to be a part of this history. Maybe I haven’t thought about this too much, but I’m a historian that’s also getting to put my thumbprint on some of the history. That’s pretty cool.”
Legacy Nitro Funny Car Series driver Travis Shumake is racing this weekend in honor of his father, Tripp Shumake, who won the 100th Funny Car race. Travis Shumake’s race car will carry a paint scheme honoring his dad’s winning livery from the 1981 NHRA Southern Nationals. “It’s going to be an emotional weekend for me for sure,” Shumake said. “My dad was so well liked by everyone when he raced, and he is a part of history, winning the 100th Funny Car race. To be able to honor him with the ‘Little Hoss’ Funny Car will be amazing.”
Ron Capps, No. 1 starter at Gainesville and winner at Phoenix in the season’s first two races, said, “We’ve talked about celebrating 75 years of NHRA in 2026 for quite some time now, and I can’t think of a track with more legacy or that better signifies the history of our sport than Pomona, the birthplace of NHRA drag racing. How cool that it lines up where this weekend is the 1,000th Funny Car race? I’ve been lucky enough to not only be a part of some of the big ones, but have also had a front-row seat to some incredible matchups over the years with some of the biggest names, including my former boss, Don ‘The Snake’ Prudhomme. The Winternationals is one of the most historic events, so you really couldn’t have drawn it up better.”
Maybe Alexis DeJoria, who said she’s looking to conquer Pomona for the first time and seeking for redemption after she reached the final at the season opener then “plummeted in the second race,” summed it up best. She said, “It’s crazy to think about the fact that this will be the 1,000th Funny Car race. We’re all going to be part of history this weekend.”
5 – PRO STOCK RACERS’ REACTIONS TO NEW RULES COVER SPECTRUM – A sampling of reactions to the new rules the NHRA announced this week shows a wide variety of opinions from drivers in the class, as well as fans who have commented through social-media outlets.
For example, Jeg Coughlin Jr., who competes under the Elite Motorsports umbrella, was only positive, although he joked about having to sit differently in the seat to adjust to the hood scoops again. KB Titan Racing principal and Pro Stock racer Eric Latino was much more blunt about the effects the changes will produce. And Latino’s son, Matt Latino, has his own unique perspective.
The NHRA’s press release issued this Wednesday outlined the changes and offered reasons for the moves:
“NHRA officials announced today that hood scoops will return to Pro Stock bodies, beginning in the 2027 season, along with removing the single forward-facing throttle body and replacing it with two top-mounted four-barrel-style throttle bodies. This comes from the NHRA Technical Department’s continued effort to add more parity, continue to increase participation, and reduce overall long-term costs for teams.
“This announcement comes a decade after the Pro Stock category transitioned from two carburetors and hood scoops to electronic fuel injection (EFI) and flat hoods in 2016.
“EFI will remain for 2027, but hood scoops will return to the popular category, which has seen strong participation in recent seasons. After extensive discussion with teams, racers, engine builders and crew chiefs, the strong majority were in favor of adding a hood scoop air entry back to Pro Stock cars, starting next season.
“By adding the hood scoop back, along with the new dual throttle body EFI setup, the consensus is it will provide a more beneficial and efficient way to tune the cars, with less variation from car to car.
“’The general feeling among competitors and stakeholders is the current low/front air-entry setup makes the engines more difficult to tune and creates more variation from car to car than it should,’ NHRA Director of Engineering Clinton Snead said. ‘By adding the hood scoop and top-mounted/dual throttle bodies, it should eliminate those issues, which should help all teams, but especially the smaller and lower-budget teams.
“’We’re excited about the return of hood scoops and the addition of dual throttle bodies in Pro Stock. There was considerable momentum from teams, racers and engine builders to make this move, and we believe this should draw added interest from fans as well, returning to more of the classic look fans have associated with the category. The class is in a strong place as far as overall participation, and we’re confident this move will only continue to add to the depth and interest in Pro Stock.’”
Coughlin said, “The new hood scoop rule coming for the 2027 season is being welcomed by the teams to help improve performance and potentially reduce the continual research-and- development costs created from the current approved format. From a driver’s perspective, I don’t see a big change, as we’ve run with hood scoops up to and until 2016. The view will definitely change in the left lane. We will go from a virtually open windshield now to having to raise and look around the approved hood scoop. The Pro Stock ‘lean’ will be back.”
However, Latino expressed his opinion and said he didn’t intend for it to sound arrogant: “I’m just telling the truth.”
His assessment? “It’s a total waste of money for all of the teams. Some of the teams have tested with the throttle bodies up top and hood scoop and picked up 15 horsepower so far.
You know how well the KB Titan cars perform. So, if the other teams are picking up 15 horsepower, do they not think that we will also pick up 15 horsepower or more? We will spend about $50,000 per car and be no further ahead,” Eric Latino said.
“These other teams need to understand that the KB Titan team is the hardest-working Pro Stock team out there. No matter what the rules are, we will always out work all of the other teams and will continue to dominate until they learn or commit to work just as hard as our guys do. They are focused, committed, and relentless,” he said. “And that’s what it takes to be a championship team.
“If they want the Pro Stock cars to run quicker and pick up 50 horsepower, then we have a program that NHRA should be listening to,” Latino said. “Bottom line is that we are against it based on the current rule change.”
Conventional wisdom would say that Matt Latino would echo his father’s opinions, but he said, “Yes and no.” He said he sees the issue from a variety of angles.
“I’m pretty new to this,” the younger Latino said. “I haven’t been racing Pro Stock for many years. This is my first full year in the car. For me, it’s not like I’ve gotten used to one combination and I’ve spent years going with that. I think I can adapt pretty easily. As a driver, I don’t really care a whole lot. I think if we can pick up power and we can go faster, that’s exciting to me. As someone who pays a very large amount of money to do this, I’m not too thrilled about it, because it’s not like a lot of people say – ‘Oh, just cut a hole, put a scoop on, that’s all there is to it.’ That’s not the case. There are thousands of dollars – hundreds of thousands of dollars, really – to do R&D and to outfit all six of our cars with this set-up.
“I just know that it’s going to cost me more money next year to go racing. Hopefully I can sell that hood-scoop spot to someone who wants to put their company name on it to make up for the difference. But it will cost more. There’s no doubt about it. It’s more R&D, which is good. I mean, R&D is good for the sport. … It seems like fans are pretty excited about it. So if fans like it, then I like it, because that’s what keeps the sport alive. I’m indifferent on the topic. I can adapt, but financially, I don’t think it makes a lot of sense.”
He said, “It certainly will cost a lot of money. We’re talking about developing all new intake manifolds, body work on all the cars, paint work on all the cars, all the R&D, the dyno time. It is going to be nonstop. Our guys are going to be working overtime for easily until the spring. It’s not going to be any stopping.”
In all, Matt Latino said, “I mean, I’m very much indifferent. Again, I don’t own the team, right? So it’s not as much of a strain on me. I will have to pay more money next year to race. We have to cover our expenses by leasing cars out to drivers. If we’ve got to invest $200-300,000 at a minimum to do all the R&D, do all the intake manifolds, hours and hours of dyno time, overtime for all of our guys, body work, everything – someone’s got to pay for it, right? We don’t operate at a loss. So I see the operation side. Me, as a driver, I know I’m going to have to pay more. I’m not too thrilled about that. I will bring it back around to, if it makes more power though, then I think that’s great and I would love to experience that. And if the fans love it, then that’s also a great thing. So it’s kind of a double-edged sword.”
He brought up the matter of monitoring compliance.
“I think it’s got to be pretty regulated, because when it comes to intake manifolds, people can get tricky, things can be done. And it sounds like there’s not going to be a lot of regulation involved, which I don’t know whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. I’ll let these guys make that call, but I trust our team to develop the absolute best combination, to adapt to it real well and to come out real strong and keep the train going for next year.
“Ultimately I don’t think this really does a whole lot. There’s a lot of speculation out there or talk that this is going to help some of the smaller single car teams compete kind of on our level. And I would like to believe that because I wish we could bridge some of that gap. But at the same time, I don’t think that’s really the case. We’ve got a ton of CNC machines that never shut off. We will not stop until we know that we are absolutely dialed in and ready to dominate. We have the best CNC equipment. We have the best machine shop. That’s why we’re doing so well over the past few years. And ultimately, once we all adapt and get outfitted with the same scoops, same thing’s going to happen. Maybe be a small period where everyone’s learning, but we’ll get to it and we’ll pick it back up again,” Latino said.
If the result is what the NHRA said it’s aiming for, the class’ overall performance will be tighter. And that’s just fine with Matt Latino.
“I just hope that everyone, all the teams, they can all pick it up and work through it and compete at a competitive level. I love that our class is separated by thousandths of a second. I think that’s great,” he said. “I think that is why it’s so enjoyable because as a driver, if I don’t cut a light, if I miss a shift, if I’m off at all, I’m probably going to lose. And that is the best racing in my mind,” he said. “I get the fans that go, ‘Oh, it’s not exciting. They’re all the same. They’re all within a thousandths of each other.’ To me, that’s what makes it the best. That’s what makes it so awesome.
“We’ll see what happens with this whole hood-scoop thing and whether it creates a gap or whether everyone picks it up and adapts well, but I’m excited to see what happens,” he said.
6 – KING OF SPEED: RETURN TO QUARTER-MILE NOT FEASIBLE – Kenny Bernstein – the 1992 Top Fuel and 1987 Funny Car Winternationals winner and eight-time overall victor at this facility – knew he had to take emotion out of the equation. When it comes to the subject of whether NHRA nitro drag racing should return to a quarter-mile course, he had to be pragmatic.
“Here’s the way I would feel about it if I was performing today. My gut and my mind would say, ‘I want to go back to a quarter-mile because that’s what drag racing is. That’s what started it.’ And that would do two things. One, take us back to our roots, but I think it would reinvigorate the sport because all of a sudden you got something to really talk about. You can make a big deal out of that and ride that horse for probably a couple of years. I think it’d be good for that side,” Bernstein said.
The “however” overruled that illusion.
“But in order to do that,” Bernstein said, “there’s got to be some drastic amounts of measures to change what’s going on. You can’t go 400 miles an hour. The tires are not going to let you. They’ve already taken that side pod off to help that tire. They have no more tires. They can’t build them any faster. So we got to take something away from them, and the guys won’t do that. They don’t like to do those things. That’s not the nature of the beast. And they don’t see things maybe just the way I would right now, but I’d do it just to put the spark back in the sport, to be honest about it, to get the new people, the young people to back into this thing, because it could be a hell of a PR program for about two years, real easy. I could pound that thing hard. But it’s a big deal to take these cars back. Believe me, it’s not easy. It’s not easy at all. It’s a very difficult thing, and that’s not the nature of the beast.”
The sport, he said, is “doing good now. I mean, it’s OK. I’d like to see that only if it could be done right and the guys could do it and not kill themselves in the sense of dollars and cents, because it would cost a lot of money to change. It would. And that’s a big deal. A lot of guys out here can’t afford that. They’re on a shoestring,” he said. “But it’d be a big deal. But that’s only my side of it from what would be, what’s the next step that would help this sport? That’s probably what it is.”
7 – DAVID, TAKE THE WHEEL – Pro Stock crew chief Dave Connolly, a 26-time race winner, was back behind the wheel Friday, subbing for his KB Titan Racing driver Cody Coughlin. “He had some prior commitments,” Connolly said, explaining the strategy for his one-day appearance. Coughlin will be back in action Saturday and Sunday, but the team wanted to make sure the car got in the show in case predicted rain washed out Saturday qualifying. Besides, Connolly joked, “If you leave the keys in the car, I’m going to jump in it.”
Greg Anderson shared a bit more on the situation after snaring the tentative No. 1 qualifying position.
“Cody’s got some issues going on back home, and he couldn’t make it Friday. He’s going to try and make it tomorrow. Still not 100-percent sure he’s going to make it.
“Either way,” Anderson said, “if he shows up tomorrow, we thought, ‘Well, why leave the car sit on Friday? Let’s put Dave in the car, perfect test driver pilot, whatever you want to call him. Make a couple runs, and the car will be hopefully perfectly set up for this racetrack come Saturday when Cody Coughlin shows up.’ That’s the game plan coming in, and we’re going to hope and pray that Cody gets here tomorrow. He’s got some things he could not leave for today, but he’s going to try and make it tomorrow.
“We’ll see what happens tomorrow, and we’ll go from there. But that’s why that all happened. Cody has told us a week ago he could not make it on Friday, [that] he’ll be here on Saturday. We just flat made the decision. If we let us sit in the trailer, we’ll be going out on Saturday pretty much blind. We thought we’d run it today with Dave. And if we have to, if Cody does show up and then we disqualify the runs from Dave today and Cody’s got to start over, he’s got to go qualify again tomorrow. But the conditions are going to be good enough, that won’t be an excuse why he won’t be able to qualify. And hopefully now the car is ready. That’s why we did what we did.”
8 – SHIRLEY SHAHAN IS IN THE HOUSE – On hand this weekend from her home at Tulare, Calif., is 88-year-old, Shirley Shahan Bridges, the first woman to win an NHRA national event. Shahan carved herself a place in the sport’s history book in the Stock class in 1966 – 60 years ago – on this dragstrip. She’s a guest of Ron Capps this weekend, and she has predicted that Ron Capps Motorsports’ Madison [Maddi] Gordon, the 100th different woman to win a race, will earn the Top Fuel trophy Sunday.
“I’ve been wanting to do it, and I love Shirley,” Capps said. “So, we were doing autographs at the Nitro Revival last year, and of course, anytime I see Shirley at Bakersfield, I stop and talk to her. Then we started the year out and I talked to Maddi and I said, ‘How cool would it be to get Shirley, the first winner, and then you, the 100th winner, together? And so I sent a note to Shirley. I got her email and sent a note, and she said I’d love to come.”
Capps said the two notable women have met: “Maddi has met her, I think, at Bakersfield. Shirley’s awesome. She’s so classy.”
And Shahan started quite a movement. So far, the motorsport with the most diversity and most participation and achievements by women has produced 107 different women winners. Super Comp racer Kelly Kundratic is the 400th and most recent woman to win a trophy. She won at the season-opening Gatornationals.
The next pro woman to win a national event will have the distinction of earning the 200th such victory. So the NHRA can boast 199 pro victories for women drivers.
9 – CAMPBELL DOING DOUBLE DUTY – Jim Campbell, driving Pomona icon Gary Densham’s Funny Car this weekend, has two jobs Saturday. The first is to get the car qualified. (He and Todd Lesenko in the Jim Dunn Racing entry, are outside the field overnight.) The second is to emcee the Saturday night concert at LaVerne Brewing Company that will feature the classic-rock band FM Station and a raffle that will benefit the NHRA Motorsports Museum.
Campbell said he’s “absolutely stoked that we’re running. I’m stoked to be driving Gary Densham’s car in at the 75th anniversary of the NHRA and the 1,000th Funny Car race. How cool is this? And I get to be involved in it, in my home track. It just doesn’t get any better. Well, I guess it could if I can go four rounds on Sunday.”
Greg Amaral, a former student of now-retired high-school shop teacher Densham, will continue to serve as crew chief.
“If I won the race,” Campbell said, “I’ll probably run back towards a starting line and then they’ll get on the radio and go, ‘By the way, Jim, we still got to run Top Fuel. Get off the track.”
10 – SPEEDMASTER MAKES SPEEDY COMMITMENT TO JOSH HART’S TEAM – When Jason Kencevski and his Speedmaster aftermarket company partnered with John Force Racing and Josh Hart in January as co-primary sponsor on the dragster with Hart’s company Burnyzz, the CEO told National Dragster that Hart “is a driven, successful CEO, and there’s a strong alignment between his mindset and our vision. This partnership brings together legacy and the next generation, and we believe it helps set a powerful example for young entrepreneurs and leaders across the automotive industry. We hope this partnership becomes a North Star for younger leaders in our industry who want to build something meaningful, competitive, and lasting. It reflects why Speedmaster is one of the only aftermarket manufacturers holding a primary sponsorship role in the NHRA Top Fuel ranks.”
The relationship worked out so well from the start that Speedmaster has increased its partnership to full primary sponsorship, beginning this weekend.
“I’ve never had a sponsor contribute so much, so fast,” Hart said. “The partnership is beyond just parts and sponsorship for the race car. We quickly became friends. We quickly understand each other’s businesses. Jason’s been great. The whole Speedmaster team has really been kind of rallying behind this. He mentioned to me that this is a lifelong dream of his, to be a primary sponsor on a Top Fuel car with John Force Racing. The fact that we were able to collaborate and put it together as quickly as we did is absolutely epic. Speedmaster stepping into the primary spot alleviates some pressure on me, puts them in the spotlight, which is what they deserve and, hopefully, it’s a long-term partnership for years to come.”
10A – SPORTSMAN FINALS MOVED UP – The NHRA has scheduled the final rounds in most sportsman categories for Saturday. The Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car classes, though, remained on the Sunday agenda.
